Improvement in the vent-holes of ordnance



W. W. GOULD.

LVent for Ordnance andFire- Arms.

V Patented Apr. '22, 1862 JNF @LLLM Vitn es-s s:

, UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE- WILLIAM IV. GOULD, OF SKOWHEGAN, MAINE.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE VENT-HOLES O F ORDNANCE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 35,019, dated April 2.2, 1862.

T0 aZZ whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM W. GOULD, of Skowhegan, in the county of Somerset and State of Maine, have invented a new and use ful Improvement in Ordnance and Fire-Arms; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which.

Figure 1 is a top View of the breech part of a cannon with my improvement. Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal vertical section of the same. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one of the vent-tubes.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

The object of my invention is to obtain a more perfect combustion of the charge of gunpowder in ordnance and fire-arms than is effected by the ordinary construction of the vent, and thereby to obtain a more forcible discharge of the projectile and greater length of range and depth of penetration; and to this end it consists in a certain construction of the vent to convey the fire from one point on the outside of the gun to two or more points in the charge.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A is the gun, having drilled through the upper part of its wall, a short distance in front of thebreech, two vent-holes, a b, which meet in the outer surface of the gun, one passing downward obliquely in a rearward direction or toward the breech and the other obliquely downward in a forward direction or toward the muzzle. These holes are reamed out in taper form for the reception of two taper metal vent-tubes, B and B, which are long enough to reach to the center of the bore of the gun to convey the fire into the center of the charge. The mouths of these tubes are madewith flat flanges c c, which are to rest on a fl'at surface provided on the exterior of the gun around the holes a b, and these flanges are each turned upward on one side, as shown at (Z (1, those edges of the flanges which meet being beveled in corresponding directions, as shown in Fig. 2, so that the bevel of the flange c d of the tube B is in a direction the reverse of that of the obliquity of the said tube to the .flanges of the vent-tubes.

said flange and that of the flange c d of the tube B is in a direction corresponding with that of the obliquity of the said tube to the said flange, as shown at e in Figs. 2 and 3, by which system of beveling provision is afforded for the insertion of both tubes into their respective vent-holes, the tube B being it near its rear end to the gun'and enables it" to be moved aside to permit the withdrawal and insertion of the tubes. The said plate is grooved at its front end for the reception of a fixed angular tongue, h, on the top of the gun, and the said tongue and the head of the pin f serve to hold it firmly down upon the In the top of the said plate is an opening, 1', which, when the plate is in its place over the tubes and in contact with the turned-up portions (1 d of their flanges, comes exactly over the mouths of the tubes. The flanges (Z d constitute a stop to the said plate when, in being brought over the tubes. it arrives in its proper position.

To facilitate the operation of the plate D it is furnished at its front end with a thumbpiece, 9'.

The vent-tubes may be allowed to remain in the gun when it is charged with loose powder, or the charge is poured in from the cartridge, as is very commonly the case with small-arms used in military service; but when the powder is inserted in a cartridge the tubes must be removed before the insertion of the cartridge, and if the cartridge is of any material easily perforated the tubes may be replaced after the cartridge has been inserted. The tubes may, however, be dispensed with altogether in some cases, as the vent-holes a a will convey the fire of the priming to the charge at two points.

The priming used may be of gunpowder or of any other suitable composition, and when inserted at the aperture 1', or at the junction of the mouths of the vent holes or tubes, will have its fire conveyed through the two tubes or vent-holes and ignite the charge at two points.

More than two vent-holes With or without I D, having an aperture, i, the Whole arranged tubes might be used, in all cases uniting in and operating substantially as and for the purone orifice in the outer surface of the gun. pose herein set forth.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is GOULD The combination of the two oblique1y-ar- Witnesses: ranged flanged tubes B 13,- having their flanges F. M. DYER,

beveled, as shown at e, and the covering-plate T. l LITTLEFIELD. 

